On Nov 18, in one of her first political moves after being freed from seven years of house arrest, Suu Kyi and legal advisers to her National League for Democracy (NLD) petitioned the Supreme Court to restore the NLD's status as a political party.

'The Supreme Court has rejected the case,' said a senior official in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's capital, where the supreme court is based.

The NLD lost its status in May after refusing to register for the Nov 7 general election, the first in more than 20 years.

The party boycotted the election to protest a law that would have required it to drop Suu Kyi as a member if it wanted to be put on the ballot.

The NLD had won the previous national election in 1990, by a landslide but was blocked from assuming power by the military.

New registration rules for this month's elections barred parties with members who were serving sentences from court convictions. Suu Kyi was under house detention until Nov 13.

Many Western critics consider the Nov 7 polls as a sham used by the junta to legitimise its hold on power.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party, a junta proxy, won 77 percent of the contested seats in the three chambers of parliament.

The party has been accused of tampering with advance ballots, and bribing or intimidating voters.

News of the election has been overshadowed by the release of the 65-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, who has spent 15 of the past 20 years under house arrest.